Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1887-05-09
g.ifnltural department.
Potato Culture.

y great variety OF experiments III
potato culture during the past forty
years convinces me that we must be
very cautious in answering questions
on the subject unless all of the sur
rounding conditions are known; for
what is best under one condition
is far from being best under differ
ent condition. For example, on
warm dry land it is best to plant po-
tatoes five inches below the surface
and cover three inches deep, then
level up the other two inches after
the potatoes are well up, and keep
the land level during the season: but
on low and rather moist soil two
inches would be deep enough to
plant the potatoes and then cover
| three inches, thus leaving the hill
one inch above the surrounding level
and when cultivation begins the hills
should be made high enough to give
room for the potatoes to grow above
| the wet, cold soil. Potatoes that are
cut should not be covered quite as
deep as three inches whole potatoes
require to be deeper to prevent too
many stalks.
In regard to cutting potatoes
very large number of experiments
have proved that whole potatoes are
best for warm, high land, and for
very early patatoes they will not
only yield enough more to pay the
extra cost of the seed, but will pro-
duce a crop from a week to ten days
earlier than cut potatoes, which will
sometimes make difference in price
of from fifty cents to one dollar a
bushels. But on rich, moist land
the difference between whole and cut
potatoes is not so great. In the first
on a rich, moist soil it is not so
important to secure an early
vigorous growth as it is on a warm,
dry soil, and in the second place, not
being planted so deep below the sur
rounding land, there is a greater
tendency to the production of large
number of stalks than on dry land,
but as a rule, even on low land, it
would be better to plant a medium
sized potato whole, if planted
eighteen inches apart in the drill, with
the rows AZ inches apart, than it
would to cut them and plant them
as cut with nothing to prevent them
from bleeding or to shut the air out. |
If potatoes are to be cut they |
should be covered with plaster be- |
fore planting. As to varieties fo- all |
soils the Beauty of Hebron is prob |
the best well established variety |
when everything is considered. In re-
gard to different varieties requiring
different soils it may be considered
quite certain that while early varie- |
than late varieties it is probably not |
because there is different in the re-
quirements of each except in the
length of time required for them to
grow and ripen. While the early |
variety will often become full grown |
before the soil becomes dry enough |
to do injury, the late varieties will |
be so late that a drought may set in
he expects to be very successful
in time to stop the tuber before half
grown. Every grower of potatoes if
must first learn the general require
ments of a crop. These he must
carefully observe and experiment
with until he learns the particular
requirements of each field on his
own farm. There is no such thing
as successful farming by rules laid
down by those who know nothing of
our particular surroundings. We
can gather from abroad important
hints which will greatly aid us in our
efforts for improvements it is here
the agricultural press comes to our
aid and directs US into proper chan
nels for investigation. Whatever
facts we may gather from abroad |
be taken home for investiga-
ton and trial, then, and not |
until then, shall we know their value |
when applied to our particular farm.
" E. Fdrmer.